Masita GAA All-Ireland PPS Hogan Cup final: Scahill the hero for breakthrough winners Coláiste Mhuire Mullingar

Masita All-Ireland PPS Hogan Cup Senior A football final.

Coláiste Mhuire Mullingar 3-11 Tralee CBS 1-16

By Paul Keane

The Hogan Cup is heading home, back to Coláiste Mhuire Mullingar.

That may sound a little strange considering that when Will Scahill hit the winning point for the Westmeath school deep into stoppage time at Croke Park, it secured their first ever win at the grade.

But consider who the famous old cup is named after - Brother Thomas Hogan who taught his final lessons at the Mullingar school - and you'll understand the significance of the occasion.

It's taken a while for the first-time finalists to get this far mind you and when they trailed by a point early in stoppage time, it looked as if the Hogan Cup was heading south to Kerry.

Gearóid White, captain of the Kerry minor team that contested last year's All-Ireland final, fisted a score that left Tralee CBS 1-16 to 3-9 up.

But Mullingar, who'd played second fiddle for most of the second half after a brilliant start to the game, had saved a strong kick for the final lap.

Firstly, Finn Higgins broke through and levelled the game and then, deep into additional time, Scahill held his nerve with a kick that will be remembered as fondly as Brother Hogan is in Coláiste Mhuire.

Shandonagh talent Scahill finished with 1-2, the same tally as player of the match Michael Moloney, while Conor Cleary grabbed their other goal.

There was a big impact too from Paul Keating who scored three points as the midlanders capped a dream campaign with a huge win for Westmeath football.

Any lazy presumption that the cream of Kerry would rise above the Westmeath outfit to take top second level honours was wiped out straight away.

The game was only seconds old when Scahill pointed for Mullingar and when Moloney created a goal chance, and took a point, they'd signposted their intention to go for the jugular.

Scahill then struck their goal, slamming to the roof of the net in the third minute, before points from Stephen McWade and Keating.

Big Críostóir Ormsby plucked a ball from the air to engineer the Keating score and suddenly the Mullingar side led by 1-4 to no score, with only five minutes on the clock.

It was dreamland stuff for manager Dean McNicholas, his backroom and all of their vocal support who were packed into the Hogan Stand.

Midfielder Máirtín McKivergan was the player that finally got Tralee going, powering into the game and dragging his team-mates along with him.

Four points from the Ballymacelligott talent, including a monster two-point free conversion, hauled the side in green right back into it.

The problem for Tralee was that Colaiste Mhuire kept scoring goals to keep themselves just out of reach.

Conor Cleary scored a cracking goal in the 15th minute, taking out Eoin O'Flaherty with a dummo solo and then Michael Enright with a sidestep before finishing sweetly.

Higgins was the creator for their third goal just before half time, rolling away from defender Enright and passing across for Moloney to palm in.

It was a goal against the run of play that left Colaiste Mhuire 3-6 to 0-9 up at half time.

Tralee continued to pile on the pressure after the restart, dominating the third quarter to finally get back to level terms in the 47th minute.

Ronan Carroll's third score of the half, from a free, was the one that levelled it up at 1-14 to 3-8 but McKenna's 41st minute goal was the score that really ignited them.

Tom Quilter fist-passed over the top for McKenna to run onto and he finished adroitly from the left of goals.

And when Nick Lacey finally put Tralee ahead for the first time in the game with a 54th minute point, they seemed to have all the momentum.

They led again entering stoppage time after White's fisted score but Mullingar dug so deep, pointing from Higgins and then Scahill to seal the landmark win.

Colaiste Mhuire Mullingar scorers: Will Scahill 1-2, Michael Moloney 1-2, Conor Cleary 1-0, Paul Keating 0-3, Stephen McWade 0-1, Kian Loughlin 0-1, Michael Weir 0-1, Finn Higgins 0-1.

Tralee CBS scorers: Máirtín McKivergan 0-4 (1 tpf), Ronan Carroll 0-4 (0-3f), Cian McKenna 1-0, Nick Lacey 0-3, Gearóid White 0-2, Eoin O'Flaherty 0-2, Tadhg O'Connor 0-1.

Colaiste Mhuire Mullingar: Adam Buckley; Ben Sheerin, Ty Masterson, Eoin Donohue; Michael Weir, Seán Byrne, Michael Moloney; Críostóir Ormsby, Rory O'Brien; Paul Keating, Kian Loughlin, Conor Cleary; Will Scahill, Finn Higgins, Stephen McWade.

Subs: Seán Hayes for McWade 46, Pádraig Monaghan for Cleary 61.

Tralee CBS: Olivier Lata; Michael Enright, Eoin Moriarty, Stephen Turner; Fionnán Ryan, Eoin O'Flaherty, Mikey Corridan; Máirtín McKivergan, Cian McKenna; Tadhg O'Connor, Gearóid White, Tom Quilter; Ryan Hurley, Ronan Carroll, Nick Lacey.

Subs: Cillian Hurley for O'Connor 45, Darragh Murphy for Ryan Hurley 48.

Referee: Brendan Cawley (Kildare).